http://www.cbsnews.com/news/usgs-man-made-earthquakes-pose-risk-to-7-million-americans/
>About 7 million Americans live in areas of the central and eastern United States that could experience a damaging earthquake in 2016 that was caused by human activity such as wastewater disposal from gas production.
>For the first time, the U.S. Geological Survey has published an earthquake hazard map pinpointing potential sites of both man-made and naturally occurring earthquakes. The map and an accompanying study were released Monday.
>"By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the U.S.," Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, said in a press release. "This research also shows that much more of the nation faces a significant chance of having damaging earthquakes over the next year, whether natural or human-induced."
>The USGS reported that almost all the risk of increasing man-made quakes is tied to "companies that are injecting wastewater from gas and oil production down to porous rocks far below ground."
>The study reveals that the most significant hazard areas for "induced" or man-make quakes are located in six states -- Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arkansas.
>Oklahoma has the highest risk, and along with Texas has the largest population that could be exposed to the risk.
>On Tuesday morning, just hours after the report came out, Oklahoma experienced two more quakes with a magnitude of 4.1 and 4.2.
...
>"In the past five years, the USGS has documented high shaking and damage in areas of these six states, mostly from induced earthquakes," Petersen added. "Furthermore, the USGS Did You Feel It? website has archived tens of thousands of reports from the public who experienced shaking in those states, including about 1,500 reports of strong shaking or damage."
>The USGS reports that the central part of the country has experienced the most dramatic increase in seismic activity over the past six years.
>Between 1973 and 2008, there was an average of 24 earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher each year. The rate increased steadily in the relatively short amount of time between 2009 and 2015, averaging 318 earthquakes per year. This peaked just last year, with 1,010 earthquakes. So far this year, there have been 226 earthquakes of a magnitude of 3.0 or larger in the central U.S. as of mid-March.
other coverage:
http://gizmodo.com/humans-caused-earthquakes-are-so-common-that-us-geologi-1767571161
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0328/Manmade-earthquakes-on-the-rise-How-can-fracking-states-lessen-tremors
>>34974
It's happening!!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/29/pair-earthquakes-hit-crescent-in-central-oklahoma.html
this is earth shattering...
Can this also relate to fracking?
How prevalent is fracking in the US?
>>35029
Very much so, yes. But not everyone believes there is a link between fracking and earthquakes, kind of like the situation with climate change/global warming. That's why in each of the stories linked there are 2 USGS maps. One for those who believe fracking isn't affecting earthquakes, and one for those who believe it is.
>>35029
>>35052
The insane thing is that this is an already well established principle of stuctural geology. Rocks have a certain breaking point based on their makeup and we call that the coulomb fracture critereon. If you hit or surpass it then you can create new faults and fractures or reactivate existing ones. This can be done by loading more rock material (lithostatic pressure) or by loading more water onto or into a rock (hydrostatic pressure) in fact, that's the whole point of fracking.
This is also why I get frustrated when people all out fracking as harmful, but give hydroelectric damns and reservoirs a pass. Both of those also increase hydrostatic pressure, the water just remains above ground. Despite that, the increased load can still fracture rocks and trigger fault movement on pre-existing faults. It's the reason why a thorough geologic survey and report is important when deciding where to build dams.
I live in Oklahoma which is pretty much the center of all this.
Just had a quake two days ago, probably about a 3.0 I would guess.
Here is a local article that explains the bullshit we go through:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepage1/quake-debate-science-questioned-while-state-s-earthquake-studies-go/article_eedb5ada-46eb-5550-8f56-04c5cc9966b4.html
tl;dr: Shockingly the energy industries have all the power and are doing everything they can to obfuscate the truth and bury everything with their politician lackeys. Just like climate change and pollution and everything else involving extremely rich energy companies competing against scientists, the scientists don't stand a chance.
An example:
>An earthquake committee appointed by Fallin is meeting outside of public view and plans to issue no reports or recommendations. Five of 12 members have energy industry connections, including both lawmakers who serve on it.
Maybe now the americans will realize that not giving a shit does not allways pay off in freedom.
Why is this only happening in US?
>>38332
It's also happening in England and elsewhere that hydrofracking is happening.
